Monthly Archives: February 2013

I needed a smile and I found it in the most unexpected place!
As always happens with me I get to a point of no return with my hair
and have been known to take a pair of scissors to my head, or worse,
to my hair stylist’s horror, a large bulldog clip to my mop,
so when I came across this Aloe that is a North facing beauty
I had to smile…. a LOT!

We are facing a world filled with much pain and suffering,
In this country alone, one in three women
will be raped in her lifetime.
Every 4 minutes a woman is raped in South Africa.
Sexual, physical and emotional abuse is rife.
Children are not safe,
women are restricted in their movement both day and night
and there is no sign of any change at all,
in fact the statistics are getting worse.
We are no better as a human race than mediaeval man was,
we seem to have learned nothing at all
when it comes down to respect for other,
least of all respect for the female person
who’s uterus is the vessel for the next generation.
Women are still victimized
by a vehemently patriarchal society,
a society that says one thing but does another.
Realistically, there is little respect for the matriarchy,
women seldom have their voices heard and reacted upon.
It is time for a big change, a very big change,
another moment as big if not bigger than
the suffragette movement, this time though,
maybe women should be allowed to elect a representative,
someone who could fill the shoes of the fisherwoman,
someone who can be a respected spokesperson
for the global rights of women.
These thoughts clearly arise from
the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI,
the ultimate Patriarch.
Father to the Catholic community worldwide.
Why does that world not have a mother?
Is her truth not allowed to be heard?

Apologies to all Catholics.
I was brought up in that church, I have just lost faith.

Apologies also for my no photo day.
I feel a quiet rage and encourage conversation
around true emancipation of women throughout this globe.
I would like to leave our boy and girl
children and grandchildren safe children, wouldn’t you?

Like this:

What a week it has been, exhausting but so much fun
to be able to share my home city with an all girl carload
of first time visitors to Cape Town from Washington D.C.

I started off by giving them a drawing that I did a few years ago
to help people to understand this quirky peninsular,
with its’ cold and warm oceans, a flat topped
mountain with many angles and sides, kloofs and river beds.
A city where people live on one or other side
but seldom change ‘sides’ in their lifetime,
a multi-facetted, multicultural and general
all together breathtaking place to be.
We have a ‘tablecloth’ that lives on this, our Table mountain
and we have separate climates from one suburb to another.

Strange but true.
There are areas where the wind will launch you like a kite
into the sky or produce a ‘marilyn moment’
quite without warning,
where 1 kilometre away there is no hint of a breeze
and where if there is a wisp of cloud on Lion’s head
we know to expect rain…

but I digress!

I was musing about Tea, High Tea…
(and not on top of Table mountain as could be interpreted!)
Just under the table cloth coated mountain instead!

I believe that we can pour you arguably the best cuppa,
at the optimum temperature,in perfect porcelain,
in the most magnificent candy floss pink building
with terraces and gardens better than anywhere in the world.
(Biased? never!)

High Tea at The Mount Nelson,
(The Nellie as it is fondly referred to by locals) starts at 2.30 pm
and runs until 5.30 pm. and dressed in your finest apparel you are met
by a waiter or waitress who shows you to your cushion covered couches
and perfectly set out table.
A menu of leaf tea varieties is popped into your hands, for leisurely perusal.
After ordering your choice you and your guests are guided to a vast table,
spectacularly dressed in every kind of dainty finger foods,
cakes, sandwiches, petit fours, purple macaroons, and Savory tartlets.
In fact something akin to perfection if sweet treats are your pleasure.
The sun filled patios and gently tinkering ivories, the beautifully clothed guests
and the constant but unobtrusive attendants make for one of life’s most
deliciously indulgent entries on your to do list,
before you leave this beautiful city.